Chopped Up & Built-in Besta

Materials: Besta cabinets, drywall, paint, circular saw

Description: Last year my husband and I transformed our standalone Besta cabinets from Ikea into an awesome built-in cabinet in the living room. It completely changed the room and best of all, we did it for very little money. We disassembled the cabinets, cut the sideboards to the height we wanted them, and reassembled them. Then came the actual “building them in” part. After removing the baseboard, we secured them to the wall and built them in with drywall. The last step was to paint the drywall, reattach the baseboard where needed, and we topped it off with wood.

It sort of acts as our unofficial mantle since we don’t have one.

Because we had to empty all the contents of the cabinets to chop them up, we decided to reorganize the interior and added rods to store serving platters vertically on one side.

Since then, we’ve repainted the living room and now we like the built-ins even more. The best part? Since we already had the cabinets, the lumber, and leftover wall paint, the only expenses we had was the drywall (around 30€) and the parts for a couple of new outlets that we decided to add in the process (20€). Of course we still have to decide what color to stain the wood top – we’re leaning towards a darkish stain but we’re not sure. Maybe you’re readers could help us out?

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Jules IKEAHacker "I am Jules, the engine behind IKEAHackers and the one who keeps this site up and running. My mission is to capture all the wonderful, inspiring, clever hacks and ideas for our much loved IKEA items".

13 Responses to Chopped Up & Built-in Besta

The tripod lamp is from a Spanish store (http://elrastrilloonline.es/Lampara-tripode-mesa).The sofa is also from Ikea, the Manstad, but with a slipcover from Comfort Works in the most recent after pic. We loved the shape of the sofa and the fact that it’s a sofa bed with storage but the initial fabric from Ikea (the blueish one) got reaaaally dingy, so the slipcover is great (& is what prompted the dark gray walls). Most of our furniture in the living room is actually from Ikea (not a lot of furniture stores here in the area…)

Mine’s a fabric that isn’t available online, I think (Liege Biscuit). It’s a cotton & linen fabric that is FANTASTIC to the touch. Seriously, I was at Ikea yesterday and saw our couch as it came from Ikea and could not believe how we were able to live with that fabric for so long. We went with the snug fit and, in retrospect, we should’ve picked the relaxed fit, though.

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